Within minutes, Jefferson Parish deputies had the suspected shooter, identified as Gary Francois, 25, in custody and charged him with the murder of James Vaughn.

As WDSU has previously reported, Francois is well known to local law enforcement. Records detail numerous arrests, but something else that the WDSU I-Team recently uncovered is now the focus of a state investigation.

It's not about the crimes on their own, but about the job Francois held right up until the moment of the shooting in December.

Long before Francois stepped into mall on Christmas Eve, he was in trouble with the law. In fact, he'd been arrested and charged over a half dozen times in Jefferson Parish where Sheriff Newell Normand was surprised to find out that Francois -- despite his arrest record -- also worked directly with at-risk youth at a state-run facility.

Days after his arrest on murder charges, Normand's office announced that Francois had prior arrests in the past on suspicion of aggravated battery, simple battery, resisting arrest, disturbing the peace, simple criminal damage and being unruly and uncontrollable. He's also has a lengthy number of traffic attachments.

Despite his arrest history, Francois was employed by the state as a "juvenile justice specialist" and was assigned to work as a direct care staff member with juvenile offenders at the Bridge City Center for Youth.

He started work last October and was still employed at BCCY when he allegedly opened fire on Vaughn. Francois was terminated by the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice two days after his murder arrest and Office of Juvenile Justice Spokesperson Beth Touchet-Morgan who says, "The circumstances surrounding the hiring of Gary Francois are being internally investigated."

The state agency overseeing incarcerated teens is now reviewing its own hiring policies to see how it would up employing a man with a troubling history in violation of its own rules. But even Louisiana Rep. Joe Lopinto was caught a bit off guard by what we told him.

When asked if that state agency "dropped the ball," Lopinto, whose district is a few miles away from the Bridge City youth facility said, "That's what it seems like."

A closer look at the position Francois held shows he had security responsibilities over youth offenders at BCCY. A job description notes, "An applicant who has been convicted of a felony or who is under indictment on a felony charge will be disqualified until relief from the disabilities imposed by state and federal laws is granted."

Francois hasn't yet stood trial on the felony charges filed against him prior to the mall shooting, but those pending charges should have disqualified him from the juvenile justice job.

Lopinto, a former cop who heads the state legislature's criminal justice committee, says OJJ had access to Francois' past arrest history.

"Because you have a process in place from the legislature that allows these types of facilities to not only get conviction records, they can also access arrest records, because we understand that they are obviously going to have to have close proximity to inmates but more importantly child inmates. So we want to make sure people working at these facilities have the right backgrounds so these people don't continue to re-offend once they get out," said Lopinto.

"We [have to] be real careful when we are talking about the people who are looking after our biggest assets," said Josh Perry, who runs the nonprofit Louisiana Center for Children's Rights. His group has done extensive work with youth jails around the state.

"If there is something in someone's past that raises questions, then yeah, absolutely, that should ring alarm bells," said Perry.

"The agency is reviewing its policies and procedures related to criminal records checks to ensure that current and future employees are properly vetted for suitability of employment."

"What I want to know is how big is the mistake? I mean, is this something where they got the records from this guy, and it sat on someone's desk, and no one looked at it for the last 90 days, and that's how he was employed? Or were they not getting the records for all their employees? It depends on how big the problem is in this particular situation," said Lopinto.

"If OJJ is being more careful now, more careful is always better, and I'm glad they are going to review their processes going into this," said Perry.

Lopinto says overseeing youth offenders is not child's play, and he wants to make sure mistakes like the one currently under investigation don't happen again.

OJJ runs four juvenile detention centers in the state: the Bridge City facility on the Westbank, Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe, Swanson Center for Youth in Columbia and Ware Facility for Girls, which is in Red River Parish.

One year ago, OJJ shut down another facility, Jetson, near Baton Rouge. Seventy-six male offenders were transferred from that facility to others in the state.

Francois is being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna. His next court date is currently set for next week.